"The match was a fierce exchange of offence and defence from the beginning," it said.

300 North Korea fans fly in

One of the supporters at the game, speaking through a South Korean journalist, said the group had arrived in South Africa from Pyongyang on Tuesday morning and would stay in the country to watch North Korea's three group games.

The North Korean supporters all wore red jumpers, red scarves and red caps and each carried a North Korean flag and a brick-shaped object which makes a sound similar to castanets, although they were drowned out by the vuvuzela trumpets.

The fans claimed they were part of a group of 300 North Korean fans who flew into Johannesburg via Beijing and Hong Kong.

"We were hoping to see North Korea score at least two goals in the first half and we were disappointed not to see any," 43-year-old Kim Yong Chon said through an interpreter after seeing his side keep Brazil goalless by half time.

"We will also be supporting South Korea. Our hearts are with them too, but we have no tickets for any of their games.

North Korea's official media praised its team for a fierce fight.

"We will stay here as long as North Korea are in the tournament. We hope to reach the quarter-finals, who knows, maybe even the final."

They were all hand-picked by the government with visas issued by the North Korean embassy in Pretoria, Kim said.

South Korean support

South Korean fans, whose own team got off to a flying start with a 2-0 victory over Greece, heaped praise on the North Koreans in internet postings after the match.

"I'm shedding tears now. You fought so well," one wrote on Yahoo! Korea.

"I am so proud of you. We are all Koreans," another post read.

Media access to the players from one of the world's most isolated nations has been extremely restricted since they arrived in South Africa to contest their first World Cup since the 1966 tournament in England in which they sensationally beat Italy.

North Korea's remaining two group matches are against Portugal on Monday and then the Ivory Coast on June 25.

Causing a stir

Following North Korean sporting fortunes can be a dangerous exercise for fans.

In 2002, the North pulled off a major public relations coup by sending a 360-strong cheering squad, made up of strikingly pretty girls, some dressed in traditional robes and others in mini-skirts, to fill the stadiums of the Busan Asian Games in South Korea.

They caused a stir with their colourful, smiling, tightly-choreographed routines, delivering a shock to those who thought all North Korean women were drab and sullen.

But it was claimed that, on their return home, some of the girls, who had been chosen from colleges and leader Kim Jong-Il's official propaganda squads, were incarcerated in the notorious Daeheung concentration camp.

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Their crime, according to South Korean media, had been to break a promise that they would not disclose what they had seen in South Korea.